Helen Stoddard

HELEN A. STODDARD

Watkins

Helen A. Stoddard, 93, died Sunday, Dec. 17, 2017, at Colonial Manor of Amana.

Funeral services will be at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 21, at Phillips Funeral Home in Blairstown with Pastor Crystal Oberheu officiating. Interment will be held at Mound Cemetery, rural Watkins. Friends may call from 4 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at the funeral home.

Helen was born Sept. 29, 1924, in Lingo, Mo., the daughter of Frank and Hermina (Chervenka) Sebol. She graduated from Bucklin High School in Bucklin, Mo., with the Class of 1942. On June 1, 1942, she was united in marriage to Jerome Stoddard in Linneus, Mo. The couple lived in Missouri until moving to Iowa, where they lived in Luzerne and Blairstown for a number of years before settling in Watkins in 1956. Helen worked as a postal clerk at the Cedar Rapids and Watkins post offices, retiring in 1989.

She was a member of the Norway Methodist Church and loved to crochet. She also was an avid reader and gardener and a devoted Cubs fan.

Helen is survived by her children, Loretta (Larry) Lemons of Fruitland, Idaho, Carol (Darrell) Schulte of Norway, Steve Stoddard of Watkins and James (Cindy) Stoddard of Watkins; 13 grandchildren; 27 great-grandchildren; and 14 great-great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her parents; husband, Jerome, on Dec. 3, 2016; two grandsons, Dustin Stoddard and Matt Lemons; her great-granddaughter, Kylie Zittergruen; her great-great-grandson, Levi George; brothers, Harry, Fred, Frank and Joe Sebol; and sisters, Claudine Arbuckle and Lydia York.